Cricket: Greatbatch calling for smart aggression

Coach Mark Greatbatch is preaching a street-smart approach from his New Zealand batsmen but hopes they do not temper their aggression in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series dead rubber against Australia today.

With the two-test series a week away, New Zealand will try to save face at Westpac Stadium in the fifth one-day international after Australia cruised to a six-wicket victory in Auckland on Thursday night to clinch the series 3-1.

A lack of ruthlessness with the bat was the biggest concern from games three and four, particularly at Eden Park when New Zealand was in command at 120 for one in the 20th over, and Brendon McCullum in full flight, before being dismissed for 238 off 44.1 overs.

Greatbatch insisted it was not all doom and gloom and wanted to ensure his batsmen did not completely go into their shells.

"We are playing against the best side in the world who've won three World Cups. We need to be realistic as well. We had a real chance to go 2-0 up [in game two in Auckland] and we didn't take it. We can look at what we've done well and not so well and try to make amends tomorrow," he said.

"We're trying to get these guys to play as fearlessly as they can against the best in the world which is not always easy. You've got to encourage them to play their best game and there's going to be some mistakes along the way. We have to attack the opposition but there's got to be some smarts there too."

Greatbatch, whose side is ranked fourth in the world in one-day cricket, said the difference between the sides was Australia's ability to seize momentum in a 10-over period.

A classic example of that was when New Zealand lost five for 34 in 66 balls on Thursday, including Ross Taylor, McCullum, Scott Styris and captain Daniel Vettori.

For once, Mitchell Johnson was not the chief tormentor and James Hopes and spinner Nathan Hauritz did the damage.

"Hopefully, you've seen the fight in players across the board. Our batting hasn't been consistent enough, It needs to be more ruthless and guys need to finish the job.

"The individual needs to take personal responsibility to be better. Whoever it is if he's on 50 he needs to score 100, if he's the fifth bowler he needs to concede 40 instead of 60."

Defending a rain-reduced 200 off 34 overs, Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori applied the pressure but Daryl Tuffey - who was unlucky not to remove Ricky Ponting lbw for 19 - Tim Southee and James Franklin were expensive.